Mystery: SOLVED!

While at C.A.R. National Convention a few weekends ago, one of the greatest mysteries of all-time was solved. Okay, so maybe it's not one of the greatest mysteries... but it has been something that has annoyed my friend Sarah and I for many years.

About 4 years ago my friend Cal got married outside of Baltimore. Several C.A.R.s made the trip to celebrate his nuptials. It should go without saying, but C.A.R.s + open bar + dance floor = one helluva time. The only problem? The lack of memories. It's a good thing we have our cameras to take so many pictures!

The morning after the wedding, Sarah and I awake in our hotel room to find this:



We were completely baffled to find the ironing board in our room mangled and on the floor. While our memories were a bit fuzzy from the previous night's events, we were pretty certain that this was not our doing. For starters, I had no bruise to show for it... and there's no way I could have done that to an ironing board without getting a bruise, since my skin is very peach-like. We asked Sarah's brother Andy about it, and he didn't do it... so we weren't sure how this happened. We have often discussed this ironing board, but have never been able to figure out how in the heck it broke.

Fast forward to C.A.R. National Convention a few weeks ago. All of the old kids were hanging out in the guys' room on Saturday evening. Somehow, we begin discussing Cal's wedding. Sarah and I decide to bring up the fact that we found our ironing board broken on our floor and we had NO IDEA how it happened. Immediately our friend Jerry says, "I did it!".

What? What do you mean? You did it? How have you not told us this before? How did you even get into our hotel room? It turns out that Jerry ventured to our room during the search for my missing camera (it had been left on the shuttle from the reception to the hotel). While looking for my camera Jerry decided he was going to surf on our ironing board (at the very mature age of 25ish). Of course, the ironing board buckled under pressure and collapsed on our floor. This also explains why all of my clothes were thrown about the hotel room. I didn't think I had made such a mess while searching for my camera, but once again... fuzzy memories...

So, the great mystery of the broken ironing board has been SOLVED! This pretty much made mine and Sarah's weekend, so I couldn't help but share this bit of information with you all. I know you will all sleep a little easier tonight knowing that it was Jerry who broke our ironing board four years ago.

My stalker...

Well, dear blog-reader friends, it seems I may have a stalker on my hands. It started out as a very casual relationship. We'd see each other a couple of times a year, no biggee. Over the last year or two though, it seems that we're running into each other a bit more frequently. I wasn't too alarmed... it all seemed very natural. However, I have recently begun to realize that I am being stalked.

I didn't pay much attention at first, and hardly realized that their appearance was becoming more and more frequent. But over the last few months, it's been hard not to notice their presence in my life. It seems I can't escape them! Every aspect of my life is being infiltrated... it seems I have a full-blown obsessor on my hands.

And just who might my stalker be? WEDDINGS! I can't escape them! Just to prove my point... this past Saturday I attended a bachelorette party for my dear friend, and former BBW manager Andrea (Dre), who is eloping to Vegas this week. On Sunday I received a phone call from my biffle (that's best friend for life for those of you not in the know), informing me of her weekend betrothal. And then last night I was channel surfing and stumbled upon "Girl Meets Dress" on WE tv, and decided to pause there while I continued to look for something else to watch. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw a friend from HS on my television talking about getting her bridesmaids fitted for her wedding. This brought me to the conclusion that I have a full-blown stalker on my hands.

This week will once again be filled with bridal events as I am a bridesmaid this weekend. I can only imagine what my life will be like if I am (un)fortunate enough to catch the bouquet...

All dogs go to heaven... (I hope)

Our family dog Baron died on Monday. He was hit by a car and died during surgery from the extensive trauma he received. It has surprised me just how hard I have been taking this. Jay got Baron shortly after he and Lindsey started dating (she drove up to Dallas with him to help him pick out the puppy)... so we had him for almost five years, for all of which I have lived in Austin. He's ginormous, comparable to a horse, so I've never been one to cuddle with him. But I have been crying all week about it! I don't remember the last time I was this upset over a pet's death. When you grow up in the country always having at least 3 or 4 pets at a time, you get used to pet deaths.

Perhaps it's the circumstances of this death. Baron was not prone to wandering near the road unless there was something going on that shouldn't be. Also, he's HUGE (tall and probably close to 170 lbs), so it's hard to believe that someone would not see him in the road. And, that someone didn't even bother to stop and help the poor dog! I really hope some major damage was done to the car. From the extensive amount of wounds, the vet was pretty confident in saying that he was hit dead center and at excessive speed (the speed limit is 40 mph on unmarked county roads). Poor, poor guy.

I don't think I had realized how much I depended on Baron as my protector. Our house can be a pretty scary place when you're there by yourself. Baron was always good at greeting my car whenever I pulled into the driveway and walking me to the house. He would sleep outside the door, and I always felt good about hearing him bark at unknowns in the middle of the night. I'm so glad that when I was walking out to leave home last weekend I stopped to pet Baron and tell him what a good boy he was, that's not something I usually do.

Here are two pictures of Baron. One from when he was a puppy, and the other from a few months ago when we had snow in Lufkin. We're going to miss you, Baron!

I'm headed to Houston tonight to stay with cousin Kathryn, Noel, and baby Will before I fly out to D.C. bright and early tomorrow morning for C.A.R. National Convention. I have a lot going on that I want to blog about, so hopefully you will see a lot more of me when I return... but no promises...

Easter

I went home this past weekend for Easter, and had so much fun! The weather was perfect for the most part and I got to spend lots of quality time with the fam. On Saturday evening we had a fish fry at the lakehouse to celebrate Easter and the many March/April birthdays in our fam. There were 5 kiddos there... Ella (4 almost 5), Eric (almost 3), Madelyn (almost 3), Braxton (10 months) and Will (6 months), and they had a blast.

The babies got to hang out and get lots of attention from their cousins and aunts and uncles and great-aunts and great-uncles and grandparents. The kiddos got to play in the yard, dye Easter Eggs and then hunt them.

Here are some pictures from our fun fish fry.

Mady loves making silly faces

Throwing sticks into the water

Eric dying Easter eggs

Me and Baby Will

Braxton and Blake hunting eggs

Madelyn getting an egg

My precious niece

Ella and Mady and their loot

Happy Birthday!

Me and Baby Braxton

Jay and Lindsey's Wedding

I thought I'd finally post pictures of the wedding, though I'm sure all five of my blog readers have already seen them on facebook! After being sick for 3 freakin' weeks, I'm finally well! Or, I should say, well enough. The cough is still lingering, but I'm hoping another week's worth of Zyrtec and Musinex will clear it out. I went to the doctor last week and was told that all of my pain and suffering was merely allergies. Ugh. I was able to return to boot camp on Saturday morning and looking forward to going again tonight. It's been so beautiful outside the last few days and I haven't really been able to enjoy it.

There's been lots going on... weddings this and weddings that, mostly. Guess that's just how it goes when everyone you know gets hitched.

So the first wedding of the season was my twin brother Jay to Lindsey. Jay and Lindsey are the parents of my precious 2 1/2 year old niece, Madelyn... so most of us thought it was about freakin' time they tied the knot. They got married on a Friday evening at a banquet facility called Occasions in Royse City (right outside of Dallas). They had originally chosen the location because they wanted an outdoor venue for their wedding, but the harsh Texas winter and lots of rain prevented the venue from landscaping their outside so the ceremony was held in their chapel with the reception in their banquet hall.

It was a fun wedding! Of course, there were a few glitches in the actual ceremony. Madelyn woke up with an ear infection that morning and had to be taken to the doctor. At their absolute best, a 2 year old in a wedding party is a wild card. She made it about three rows down the aisle before she spotted her sitter and decided she wanted to cuddle with her. She could spot my dad sitting on the front row, so she started pointing at Pop Pop. My dad ended up having to carry her down the aisle and deposited her with a bridesmaid!

The second glitch had me crying from laughter. When Jay and Lindsey went to light the Unity candle Jay ended up knocking over all of the candles. They all fell to the floor and burned out. My dad still had the lighter from when my mom lit her candle, so he tossed it up to Jesse, who caught it and gave it to Jay so he could re-light the candles.

The reception was smooth sailing... though Jesse's best man speech was very random and even included a shout-out to Obamacare. It was fun two-stepping and being spun around the dance floor, and there was even a twin vs. twin dance-off between Jay and myself and Clay and Jared (Jay's fraternity brothers and ushers at the wedding).

Fam at the wedding

Jay and Lindsey with their potinis... they were yummy!

The Groom's Cake made by the Groom!

Precious Madelyn

Mother/Son Dance

Jay is a dance-off machine

Friends and Cousins at the wedding

Me and Cousin Kathryn

Lindsey and Jay Rush

Me and Andrea (or as Kathryn called her, that girl in all of my pictures)

Spring Break

Sorry for the extended absence, I've been a busy and very sick girl. I woke up LAST Tuesday with a sore throat, and made the decision that I should probably stay home from work. I took some meds and laid on the couch and napped, hoping that it would be a 24-hour kind of bug and would move along before my life got all crazy with DAR State Conference and Jay and Lindsey's wedding. NOT SO MUCH.

I'm still sick. 10 freakin' days later. Of course, I only have myself to blame. I couldn't really take the time to rest with so much going on. And I wasn't going to be the wimp who didn't enjoy herself because of a little sickness. Remind me not to be so stupid in the future. I can't tell you how much fun it is not sitting on a platform in front of 700 people running a fever while preparing to give a presentation. My apologies to any sweet old ladies I may have infected last week.

I believe my last fever was Saturday night, and I took it easy early this week with going home from work and taking naps and going to bed early. Then I woke up even more sick on Wednesday. I ended up having to leave work at lunch. Such a fun and exciting way to spend St. Patty's Day! Now I have the death cough. And I wish it would go away, because it hurts and it's loud and really puts a damper on my day.

This week I've grown to have a love/hate relationship with Spring Break. I absolutely love, love, love the lack of traffic on Austin roadways. My morning commute has been taking 15 minutes!It even rained one morning and I still didn't have any slow downs on my way into work. I've definitely used that time to get a little more sleep. It's been a-maz-ing. I will be sad to see Monday return with the annoying traffic.

And now the hate part. I absolutely loathe the increased foot traffic in the Capitol. There are so. many. tourists. EVERYWHERE. The elevators take forever. There's a line in the bathroom. There's a line in the cafeteria. People randomly open our door to peer in at least 10 times a day. Foreigners ask if they can go out on our balcony. Kids just open the office door and start snapping pictures. Seriously.

I guess it hasn't been that bad for me in Spring Breaks past because I've always officed in a not-so-desirable part of the Capitol. There's nothing very historic about the Capitol Extention, it's only about 15 years old. And no one wants to see an office with no windows. But you move up to the 4th floor and suddenly everyone wants to stop by your office and just stare at you. One guy asked me if this is where they bring the Taks tests to be graded. Really? I can only guess how well you did on that test....

But enough ranting. I promise to post pictures from the wedding next week, for those of you non-facebookers (are there really any of those kinds of people left?). This weekend will be busy with celebrating Phillip's birthday and Michelle's bacheloretteness. I'm very much looking forward to our trip to Fredricksburg for a wine tour! Now if only I could stop coughing, it should make for an interesting 10 mile run on Sunday....

To-do List:

***UPDATED 3/4/10*** I'm pretty dang impressed with the progress I have made over the last few days!!!

I've been meaning to make a to-do list for the next two weeks of C.A.R. and DAR State Conferences in hopes to relieve some stress, so here goes:

___ Write Sr. Registrar Report

_X_ Make seating chart for C.A.R. State Conference

_X_ Make seating place cards for C.A.R. State Conference

_X_ Make seating place cards for TSDAR Memorial Service

_X_ Print and mail Chapter Outstanding Junior Member certificates for signature (42)

_X_ Sign and mail OJ participation certificates for chapters (42)

_X_ Write Outstanding Junior Member Presentation for Thursday Night

_X_ Make corsages for State OJ Winner and Runner-Up

_X_ Order State OJ Pin for winner

_X_ Write Oustanding Junior Member Presentation for Jr. Breakfast

_X_ Write OJ Contest Chairman Report

___ Write "Texas Talk" OJ newsletter article

_X_ Finish Junior Breakfast Program

___ Make props for Junior Breakfast skit

_X_ Make Page certification cards for OJ Contest point

Hopefully work won't get in the way of everything I have to do! And hopefully nothing else will get added to the list...